An aspiring stand-up comedian could not see the funny side when she discovered her photo was being rated in a "hot or not" section of an inner west newspaper, after being promised she would feature on the cover.

Comedian Genevieve Fricker and actress Annabelle McMillan, who are both performing in the Sydney Fringe Festival, had expected to see their smiling faces on the cover of the inner-west local newspaper Ciao.

Instead, their looks were being rated by a panel of four men.

"I can leave my beer goggles at home for these two," panel member Julius wrote, rating them 4½ kisses.

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"I'll definitely be watching in the front row with three drinks," another panel member, Danny, wrote, with a rate of four kisses.

"Both what every guy wants in a woman – a combination of mystery and humour," Kevin wrote, also rating them four kisses.

Beneath the photo, which was taken by a Ciao photographer, the caption (playing on their show names, Lucky and Porphyria's Slumber) read: "Do you want to get Lucky or Slumber with Porphyria?"

A small caption next to the photo then read: "You lucky buggers are blessed with a darn difficult choice this weekend as these two hot ladies both have shows on at the Sydney Fringe Festival ... Decisions! Decisions! What will it be lads, dark and dangerous or the hilarious cat lady?"

Fricker, who had been contacted by the newspaper to feature on the cover, said she was horrified when she saw the page online on Saturday.

"I was shocked that they thought it would be OK to do this," Fricker, 22, said. "Largely because Annabelle and I are quite loud and proud feminists and we would never willingly do something like this.

"Annabelle's play is a feminist response to a Robert Browning poem, Porphyria's Lover."

On September 10, photographer Ben Cregan contacted Ms Fricker's manager via email to ask whether she would consider appearing on the cover.

"We are shooting a Fringe Festival cover and I'm inquiring if Genevieve may be interested," he wrote.

When no one contacted Fricker after the photoshoot, she thought the article had been cancelled.

"I assumed that someone would get in touch with me afterwards and do a phone interview about the show," she said.

The article has since been taken down from the Ciao website, after hundreds of supporters tweeted about it and well known artists including Wil Anderson, Kate Miller-Heidke, Catcall and Dominic Knight lent their online support.

"You don't get into comedy to pick up guys," Fricker, who freelances for the Herald, said. "It's the worst way to do that.

"It sends the wrong message to women in comedy."

The publisher of Ciao, Sonia Komaravalli, said the publication of the photo had been a "misunderstanding" but the newspaper had thought it was doing the two artists a "favour" by running it.

"The section isn't about the show ... It's meant to be funny," Komaravalli said. "We thought they were comedians and we thought they would see the humour in it, but clearly not and that's our error."

This afternoon both artists were offered an apology by the newspaper. A clarification will be printed in the next edition.